Does NESTLE-ALAND 28th Edition of the Greek New Testament WEIGH the Evidence FAIRLY . . . in 1 JOHN 4:3 ?

OMITTING THE MANUSCRIPT EVIDENCE FOR 1 JOHN 4:3  . . . . 

Here is our SCRIPTURAL TEST:

And every spirit that confesseth not that

JESUS CHRIST is come in the flesh

is not of GOD: 

A Look at 
the flimsy Manuscript Evidence for NA 28 's OMISSION of 1 John 4:3 Testing the spirits  phrase.

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An easy-to-read Table of Data to determine

 IF the manuscripts warrant the omission 

of the Test phrase in 1 John 4: 3.

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A table of the MSS which OMIT

JESUS CHRIST IS COME IN THE FLESH

as cited in NA 28th apparatus.   

SOURCE OF NA 28TH APPARATUS	MINUSCULE NUMBER	CENTURY	PAGES	TEXT TYPE	IN/ NOT IN SKYPOINT	IN FAMILY 1739
PALMER	398	10TH	251	BYZ	NOT SKY	NO
PALMER	1735	10TH	233	ALEX	SKY	FAM 1739
PALMER	1739	10TH	189	ALEX	SKY	FAM 1739
PALMER	323	11TH	374	ALEX	SKY	FAM 1739
PALMER	945	11TH	347	ALEX	SKY	FAM 1739
PALMER	2298	11TH	?	ALEX	SKY	FAM 1739
PALMER	720*	12TH	296	MIX	NOT SKY	NO
PALMER	1241	12TH	193	ALEX	SKY	FAM 1739
PALMER	629*	14TH	216	MIX	SKY	NO
PALMER	1881	14TH	126	ALEX	SKY	FAM 1739
PALMER	322	15TH	134	ALEX	SKY	FAM 1739

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EXAMINING NESTLE-ALAND’S 28^TH EDITION’S EVIDENCE

for OMITTING the TEST  for the Testing of the spirits

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Here is The SCRIPTURAL TEST:

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And every spirit that confesseth not that

JESUS CHRIST is come in the flesh

is not of GOD:

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and this is that spirit of antiChrist,

whereof ye have heard that it should come;

and even now already is it in the world.

1 John 4:3

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The situation in our modern English New Testaments is critical. 

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The TEST to use to try the spirits --- to see if they will confess that   JESUS CHRIST is come in the flesh  --- has been omitted from MOST ENGLISH VERSIONS. 

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This TEST is crucial because wicked spirits of the antiChrist will NOT confess to humans  that JESUS CHRIST has come in the flesh. 

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Wicked spirits know The LORD JESUS came in the flesh, but they refuse to confess that Truth ( or any Truth ) to humans. To us, they can only LIE, as their father the devil lies. 

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That REFUSAL to confess the truth

 that JESUS CHRIST has come in the flesh

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is what tells us

that it is a WICKED SPIRIT of the antiChrist

which we are confronting.

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Wicked spirits DO confess truth, though, when forced to do so when confronted by The LORD JESUS HIMSELF+, according to what we see in Scriptures.

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What Have our English Versions

Done with that TEST ?

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Of the 59 modern English New Testaments listed on www.BibleGateway.com , 42 of them have OMITTED  that TEST which the Apostle John gave us in 1 John 4:3.

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Two Bibles not listed on Biblegateway also omit the TEST:  the New English Bible, Oxford University Press, 1961,   and Ellis Deibler’s  A Translator’s Translation, 2008, which is sent world-wide to other translators. See  http://ebible.org/t4t /

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(Mr. Deibler is a retired Wycliffe translator and is in good standing with SIL and Wycliffe. See: Testing the spirits  post. https://goingdeeperwithchrist.blogspot.com/2018/09/testing-spirits-age-of-anti-christ.html#more  )

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These modern English versions base their wording on the work of Nestle-Aland’s Greek New Testament editions of NA 26^th, 27^th, and 28^th. 

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So, let us take an objective look at the manuscripts listed in the NA 28^th edition apparatus which have OMITTED that TEST : JESUS CHRIST is come in the flesh  

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David Robert Palmer, a serious textual critic, offers a free download of his Greek – English 1 John 4:3 at  http://bibletranslation.ws/palmer-translation/ which includes NA 28^th apparatus.

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Mr. Palmer’s download  includes the differences  ( color-coded and placed into the text itself ) between the Nestle-Aland 28th Alexandrian Greek text and the Byzantine Greek text by Robinson-Pierpont. His footnotes contain the apparatus from NA 28^th   for this variant.

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Supporting the OMISSION of the Test includes these manuscripts, according to Mr. Palmer’s report of the apparatus in Nestle-Aland’s 28^th Greek text edition. The footnote 76 is Mr. Palmer’s designation.

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Here is how to decipher this footnote of OMISSION of the TEST phrase.

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footnote 76 - 4:3c (TST 67)

L. 2: omit A B 322 323 398 629* 720* 945 1241 1735 1739 1881 2298 it-r vg cop-sa,bo Cyr Irenaeus-lat Clement Origen Socrates NA28 {A}

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[ NOTE: L.2 = Mr. Palmer’s indication of a reading ( Lection), designated as #2 by him.]

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Mr. Palmer lists the Nestle-Aland 28^th apparatus record of three VERSIONS which omit the TEST phrase in 1 John 4:3. Those three are:

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The old Italic manuscript “r” – The FRISINGENSIA Fragment, an Irish-African Latin variously dated between the 5^th and 8^th century.

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 It is a partial manuscript of some of the Pauline Epistles and includes only 1 John 3:8 - 5:9. [ See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisingensia_Fragmenta ].

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The Vulgate ---  Some manuscripts; not all, according to NA 26^th apparatus. It seems NA 28^th does not reflect the complete Vulgate information as presented in their 26^th edition.

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At least one Vulgate manuscript does indeed INCLUDE that phrase, according to NA 26^th’s apparatus. (See page 621, 1 John 4:3, apparatus footnotes for that verse in NA 26^th . )

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Two main Coptic versions of Egypt, the Bohairic – ( Northern Egypt – Memphis ) and the Sahidic ( Southern Egypt – Thebes)   which had verified Gnostic readings in some of its New Testament manuscripts .

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[ See:   Gnostic Beliefs Included in Some Sahidic New Testament Manuscripts

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The NA 28^th apparatus lists the UNCIALS which have omitted that phrase: 

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A = Codex Alexandrinus – 5^th century – supposedly Byzantine

B = Codex Vaticanus --- 4^th century – supposedly Alexandrian

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To be able to EVALUATE if Nestle-Aland’s 28^th weighed the evidence clearly and fairly, we need to EXAMINE the details surrounding the MINUSCULE manuscripts.

[ Minuscule = hand-written, lower case Greek letters, written without space between the words.]

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So . . . this table will help us to SEE the DATA objectively.

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THE EVIDENCE for the OMISSION of 1 John 4:3’s TEST Phrase, Presented in Nestle-Aland’s 28^th Edition Apparatus

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SOURCE OF NA 28TH APPARATUS	MINUSCULE NUMBER	CENTURY	PAGES	TEXT TYPE	IN/ NOT IN SKYPOINT	FAMILY 1739
PALMER	398	10TH	251	BYZ	NOT SKY	NO
PALMER	1735	10TH	233	ALEX	SKY	FAM 1739
PALMER	1739	10TH	189	ALEX	SKY	FAM 1739
PALMER	323	11TH	374	ALEX	SKY	FAM 1739
PALMER	945	11TH	347	ALEX	SKY	FAM 1739
PALMER	2298	11TH	?	ALEX	SKY	FAM 1739
PALMER	720*	12TH	296	MIX	NOT SKY	NO
PALMER	1241	12TH	193	ALEX	SKY	FAM 1739
PALMER	629*	14TH	216	MIX	SKY	NO
PALMER	1881	14TH	126	ALEX	SKY	FAM 1739
PALMER	322	15TH	134	ALEX	SKY	FAM 1739

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FAMILY   1739

On this table of data, this column is probably of most significance. 

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Out of the eleven minuscules which OMIT the TEST phrase in 1 John 4:3 [ JESUS CHRIST having come in the flesh ], EIGHT of these eleven manuscripts belong to the same text type,  Family 1739.

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SOURCE NA 28TH APPARATUS	MINUSCULE NUMBER	CENTURY	PAGES	TEXT TYPE	IN/ NOT IN SKYPOINT	FAMILY 1739
PALMER	1735	10TH	233	ALEX	SKY	FAM 1739
PALMER	1739	10TH	189	ALEX	SKY	FAM 1739
PALMER	323	11TH	374	ALEX	SKY	FAM 1739
PALMER	945	11TH	347	ALEX	SKY	FAM 1739
PALMER	2298	11TH	?	ALEX	SKY	FAM 1739
PALMER	1241	12TH	193	ALEX	SKY	FAM 1739
PALMER	1881	14TH	126	ALEX	SKY	FAM 1739
PALMER	322	15TH	134	ALEX	SKY	FAM 1739
PALMER	398	10TH	251	BYZ	NOT SKY	NO
PALMER	720*	12TH	296	MIX	NOT SKY	NO
PALMER	629*	14TH	216	MIX	SKY	NO

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What does this data tell us ?

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It shows that most of the Alexandrian manuscripts cited for the OMISSION of the TEST phrase had a similar source for their copies.

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In short, those eight manuscripts of Family 1739 are faithful reproductions of basically one manuscript [ 1739 ] from which several manuscripts were copied or had utilized 1739’s text somehow, repeated seven times over the centuries.

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In other words, manuscripts from this same family 1739 speak with the SAME voice, usually saying the same thing, in accord with one another, in 1 John 4:3. 

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They are NOT representative of the “wide-spread” of manuscripts or text types which were available at that point in manuscript history.

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Should they not be counted, then,

as ONE “witness” instead of eight,

since they all stemmed from the same source ?

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SOURCE NA 28TH APPARATUS	MINUSCULE NUMBER	CENTURY	PAGES	TEXT TYPE	IN/ NOT IN SKYPOINT	FAMILY 1739
PALMER	1735	10TH	233	ALEX	SKY	FAM 1739
PALMER	1739	10TH	189	ALEX	SKY	FAM 1739
PALMER	323	11TH	374	ALEX	SKY	FAM 1739
PALMER	945	11TH	347	ALEX	SKY	FAM 1739
PALMER	2298	11TH	?	ALEX	SKY	FAM 1739
PALMER	1241	12TH	193	ALEX	SKY	FAM 1739
PALMER	1881	14TH	126	ALEX	SKY	FAM 1739
PALMER	322	15TH	134	ALEX	SKY	FAM 1739
PALMER	398	10TH	251	BYZ	NOT SKY	NO
PALMER	720*	12TH	296	MIX	NOT SKY	NO
PALMER	629*	14TH	216	MIX	SKY	NO

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The eleven ( 11 ) minuscule manuscripts which OMIT the TEST were written between the 10^th and 15^th centuries.

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At least 8 of the minuscule manuscripts in the Nestle-Aland 28^th’s list are mostly Alexandrian text types.

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Two of the 11 are a mixture of Byzantine and some Western text types, according to information on SKYPOINT for MS  629* and Wikipedia for MS 720*  

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Only one is of a Byzantine text type . . . from the 10^th Century, as early as minuscules 1735 and 1739, from whence Family 1739 stemmed.

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What does this information tell us ?

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The Committee of scholars handling Nestle-Aland’s 28^th edition did NOT select an objective or even representative SAMPLING of the manuscripts available WHEN they chose to OMIT the TEST phrase: JESUS CHRIST is come in the flesh 

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Only two manuscripts written before the 10^th century omit the TEST: the Alexandrinus Codex and the Vaticanus. 

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Thus, the basis

for omitting the TEST phrase is very narrow.

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The manuscript evidence was not handled in an even-handed manner, nor fairly done, according to the data in  NA28th apparatus, as presented by David Robert Palmer on his site at :  http://bibletranslation.ws/palmer-translation/

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An even MORE serious problem is that the NA 28^th edition gives this “OMISSION” as backed by  these 11 minuscules and 2 uncials

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AN { A } RATING

. . . THEIR TOP RATING.

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Worse, 42 plus 2 other English Versions following the Nestle-Aland 28^th’s {A} rating . . . OMIT THE TEST PHRASE as well, failing to do their own research !

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Oddly enough, Nestle's 1904 Greek text DOES INCLUDE that test phrase in 1 John 4:3 .  See: NESTLE'S 1 JOHN 4:3 . . .  so it was Mr. Kurt Aland's decision to omit it from their combined Greek text, it seems.

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Does Nestle-Aland’s 28^th Edition

WEIGH this Evidence for the OMISSION

 FAIRLY ?

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Is it, therefore, a trust-worthy Greek edition

upon which to base ANY translation ?  

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+  +  +

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Explanatory notes about the OMISSION TABLE for the “TEST” phrase on Testing the spirits in 1 John 4:3. 

 

SOURCE: David Robert Palmer recorded these New Testament manuscripts from the apparatus in NA 28^th edition for this variant. Here is his link: http://bibletranslation.ws/palmer-translation/

MINUSCULE NUMBER: These are current Gregory-Aland numbers. Two of the minuscules have asterisks after them [ 629* and 720* ] which indicate that the original scribe OMITTED the TEST phrase; correctors after them re-installed it.

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Details regarding these mss are available from a variety of sources on the internet: 
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Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_New_Testament_minuscules

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Skypoint -- An invaluable list of many New Testament manuscripts with a discussion of their text types, by Robert Waltz. Mr. Waltz is thoroughly Alexandrian in his comments.  He has different lists according to manuscript number, both for the uncial and the minuscule manuscripts. [ See http://www.skypoint.com/members/waltzmn/Manuscripts1-500.html

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Center for the Study of New Testament Manuscripts (CSNTM) – This is Daniel B. Wallace’s site . It has basic manuscript information and some photocopies of the minuscules.  Mr. Wallace is also thoroughly Alexandrian in philosophy. See http://www.csntm.org/Manuscript

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The Institute for New Testament Research ( INTF ) – This is the Aland’s website. Many manuscripts are available here for reading and research. It is rather a complicated site to use. 

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http://ntvmr.uni-muenster.de/liste/?ObjID=30472

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CENTURY: These dates are APPROXIMATED, based on the study of the document surface, ink, style of letters, or occasionally a colophon or commentary or margin apparatus. Sometimes parts of a ms will be written later.

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Sometimes the scholars themselves do not agree on the dates. Usually, these dates follow Robert Waltz’s dates recorded on his website of New Testament manuscripts, Skypoint.

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PAGES:  Note that all of these manuscripts are sizable, not fragments. As a rule, the number of pages are recorded on the list of New Testament manuscripts / minuscules from Wikipedia. The page numbers are consistent across the various online sources.

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Information on MS 2298 page number was not available.

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TEXT TYPE:  This category of data was hard to quantify. Most all of the manuscripts have SOME  percentage of readings that are not like the main body of the manuscript. Thus, the text type may vary from book to book within the same manuscript and at different degrees of correspondence to either the Alexandrian or Byzantine texts.

Generally, “mix” means the Alands placed the  First Epistle of John contained in THAT manuscript in their category 3, regardless of how they rate the other books in that manuscript AND / OR regardless of what the predominant text type might be in other parts of that manuscript. 

In short, MIX does not tell us much, but even the manuscripts designated Alexandrian or Byzantine are NOT PURELY that text. They usually all have a degree of something else involved in their text type. Thus, “text TYPES” are an approximation, at best.

SKY: This is in reference to the INCLUSION of the manuscript in Robert Waltz’s SKYPOINT .  His work is very valuable because it describes the manuscript according to how a variety of scholars evaluated it.

Mr. Waltz is thoroughly in the Alexandrian camp, however. He  is open about his own opinion and bias when discussing the manuscripts.  Generally, the Alexandrian manuscripts predominate in his review of New Testament manuscripts, but he does include many Byzantine mss.

Some manuscripts which are omitted from his excellent reviews can oftentimes be found on Wikipedia under “MINISCULE ___” ( the number of the minuscule).

More to come:  An Examination of the Evidence Nestle-Aland’s 28^th edition presents which INCLUDES that TEST phrase:  JESUS CHRIST is come in the flesh .